1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a drive device, an electronic component transporting apparatus, an electronic component inspecting apparatus, a robot hand, and a robot.
2. Related Art
A drive device was known which causes a movable member to move by driving plural motors through the use of individual drive circuits. Such a drive device was used as, for example, a positioning device and could position the movable member at a predetermined position by sequentially driving the plural motors causing the movable member to move in different directions through the use of the drive circuits. The positioning device generally employed an electromagnetic motor or a pulse motor, and a brake mechanism holding a rotor in a non-driven state so as not to rotate was required for each motor.
On the contrary, a drive device using a piezoelectric motor (piezoelectric actuator) was proposed (for example, see JP-A-2001-136760). Since the piezoelectric motor transmitted vibration generated in a piezoelectric element as a frictional force to a rotating member and the position of the rotating member was held with the frictional force in a non-driven state, the piezoelectric motor did not require a brake mechanism. Therefore, as described in JP-A-2001-136760, with the drive device employing the piezoelectric motor, it was possible to achieve a decrease in size and weight of the drive device, compared with the drive device employing an electromagnetic motor or a pulse motor.
However, in the drive device described in JP-A-2001-136760, since the piezoelectric motors were driven with individual drive circuits, respectively, the drive circuits and the lines connecting the piezoelectric motors to the drive circuits were required to correspond to the number of piezoelectric motors. Accordingly, it was difficult to achieve a further decrease in size, weight, and cost of the drive device. Since the piezoelectric motors were disposed in the movable member supporting components or the like and moving, but the drive circuits were disposed at positions separated from the movable member, the weight of the lines or the restraining force due to a bundle of lines served as a larger load for causing the movable member to move with an increase in the number of lines connecting the piezoelectric motors and the drive circuits and it was difficult to accurately position the movable member.